Reporting by Omar al-Sheikh Mohamed; Translation by Rana Abdul
(Eqtsad)- For the fifth year in a row, mother’s day passes in Syria without any signs of happiness, it passes filled with memories, that once gathered mothers with their children.
For the fifth year mother’s day passes filled with tears and hurting over sons who were killed in fields of battle, or disappeared in detentions, or were forced to desert to refugee camps and countries of humiliation.
The fifth year passes, and the Syrian mother has become the mother and father and provider, after she has lost what was most precious, husband or son, or both, for her fragile feminine body to sag under great burdens and responsibilities which even men’s rough bodies were unable to carry, in the shadow of uncertain future that is increasingly opaque and black.
Oum Mohammad, a lady in her 40s says that she, “lost her eldest son Mohammad and he was not past 16 during the start of the Syrian revolution, he was accused of demonstrating like other Syrian young men who called for freedom.”
She added, “one day the security forces raided our house at dawn, they arrested him, and my screaming, pleading and begging to those who came to arrest him that he is just a child did nothing to save him or make them be merciful to him. He was returned to me after the 7th day a lifeless body, with signs of torture clear on his skinny body, broken ribs and limbs, signs of burns from lit cigarettes on his eyes and gentiles.”
She indicated that, “after around six months from the incident while her husband was transporting fuel derivatives in his personal car between the villages, the regime hit him with a rocket and he died instantly and the car was greatly damaged. She found herself struggling to live and remain with 5 daughters the eldest of whom was only 14 years old.” She indicated she became a mother, father and provider, toiling to provide for herself and her children, where she maintained her husband’s job and she continued with what she had from her savings to work in selling fuel derivatives.
Oum Mohammad explained, “yes the work is hard and tiring but it provides for my needs and the needs of my family where I am their sole provider.”
In turn, Oum Shadi, (47), indicated that, “her eldest son Shadi was a successful engineer working in one of the governmental offices in Deraa city, and at that time he was busy getting prepared for his wedding celebration after she had engaged for him.”
She added, “he went to his work as usual in the start of April 2012, but he has not returned since that time, we tried to ask about him, so they told us he was detained on one of the checkpoints belonging to the regime inside Deraa city, and since that time we know nothing about him, is he alive or dead?” She continued, “since his absence my tears have not dried until I almost lost my sight.”
Thraa (27) confirmed that “her husband worked in the agricultural governmental office, and he went at the end of July 2013 to pick up his salary and he has not returned since that time.”
She added, “no one assisted us with any information about him,” indicating that she has two small children and she is raising them and spending on them given she is a governmental employee and earns according to her description an acceptable salary.
Thraa confirmed that, “her mother in law is an elderly lady who has health problems and chronic illnesses, and she is always asking about him, when she asks us about him we tell her he has traveled to outside Syria and he will return soon,” indicating that she still has hope he will return and so do we.
For her part, Oum Issa (53) said she, “no longer feels happiness and she no longer has any holidays that make her happy after she lost her son Essam in one of the battles against the regime forces.”
She said, “his loss was very big for me, because he was the sole provider for the family after his father’s death in a car accident, it is true he is not the eldest, but he was the only producer because he left school early and owned a shop selling and repairing mobile phones, and his income guaranteed us a decent living and was enough to buy the medication for his older brother who has hemolysis.”
She added, “I tried to convince him to put aside his weapon, and that his spending on her and his sick brother is considered sacred Jihad,” according to what she said since they both needed him, but he insisted it was “the last battle he would participate in and after that he would dedicate his time for his work but it was his last battle as he was martyred there.”
Oum Issa noted that she rented the place he worked to one of his friends, and she receives a monthly wage from the military faction he belonged to which has helped her to spend on herself and on her ill son as she said.
Tragedy and loss were not restricted to bereaved mothers but transgressed them to children, as there are small children who lost their mothers in kiln of battle, and they are the victims of orphan-hood, poverty, need and homelessness.
Nawal a lady in her fifties who did not have children points to Mohammad (5) and Asmaa (3) with tears in her eyes saying, “Samira the mother of these two children went to Deraa to receive her basket from the Syrian Red Crescent but one of the regime snipers targeted her, she died leaving these two children with no relatives, and we don’t know where they are from, all we know is that they are displaced person, we asked about them but no one recognized them, so I took it upon myself to take care of them and raise them,” she indicated that many of the people know their story, and provide what they can to help in raising them while one of their relatives or kin or someone to come and take care of them.
That is some of the stories of pain and tragedy from the lives of Syrian women which the war is still pounding them without mercy or pity, and reality points to their tragedy increases with the passing of days with the loss of any hope of the war stopping with the regime’s stubbornness, in the shadow of official international and popular silence which has given up on the simplest moral and humanitarian values and did not even bother to raise it hands in protest on a the extermination of a people in cold blood.
(Eqtsad)- For the fifth year in a row, mother’s day passes in Syria without any signs of happiness, it passes filled with memories, that once gathered mothers with their children.
For the fifth year mother’s day passes filled with tears and hurting over sons who were killed in fields of battle, or disappeared in detentions, or were forced to desert to refugee camps and countries of humiliation.
The fifth year passes, and the Syrian mother has become the mother and father and provider, after she has lost what was most precious, husband or son, or both, for her fragile feminine body to sag under great burdens and responsibilities which even men’s rough bodies were unable to carry, in the shadow of uncertain future that is increasingly opaque and black.
Oum Mohammad, a lady in her 40s says that she, “lost her eldest son Mohammad and he was not past 16 during the start of the Syrian revolution, he was accused of demonstrating like other Syrian young men who called for freedom.”
She added, “one day the security forces raided our house at dawn, they arrested him, and my screaming, pleading and begging to those who came to arrest him that he is just a child did nothing to save him or make them be merciful to him. He was returned to me after the 7th day a lifeless body, with signs of torture clear on his skinny body, broken ribs and limbs, signs of burns from lit cigarettes on his eyes and gentiles.”
She indicated that, “after around six months from the incident while her husband was transporting fuel derivatives in his personal car between the villages, the regime hit him with a rocket and he died instantly and the car was greatly damaged. She found herself struggling to live and remain with 5 daughters the eldest of whom was only 14 years old.” She indicated she became a mother, father and provider, toiling to provide for herself and her children, where she maintained her husband’s job and she continued with what she had from her savings to work in selling fuel derivatives.
Oum Mohammad explained, “yes the work is hard and tiring but it provides for my needs and the needs of my family where I am their sole provider.”
In turn, Oum Shadi, (47), indicated that, “her eldest son Shadi was a successful engineer working in one of the governmental offices in Deraa city, and at that time he was busy getting prepared for his wedding celebration after she had engaged for him.”
She added, “he went to his work as usual in the start of April 2012, but he has not returned since that time, we tried to ask about him, so they told us he was detained on one of the checkpoints belonging to the regime inside Deraa city, and since that time we know nothing about him, is he alive or dead?” She continued, “since his absence my tears have not dried until I almost lost my sight.”
Thraa (27) confirmed that “her husband worked in the agricultural governmental office, and he went at the end of July 2013 to pick up his salary and he has not returned since that time.”
She added, “no one assisted us with any information about him,” indicating that she has two small children and she is raising them and spending on them given she is a governmental employee and earns according to her description an acceptable salary.
Thraa confirmed that, “her mother in law is an elderly lady who has health problems and chronic illnesses, and she is always asking about him, when she asks us about him we tell her he has traveled to outside Syria and he will return soon,” indicating that she still has hope he will return and so do we.
For her part, Oum Issa (53) said she, “no longer feels happiness and she no longer has any holidays that make her happy after she lost her son Essam in one of the battles against the regime forces.”
She said, “his loss was very big for me, because he was the sole provider for the family after his father’s death in a car accident, it is true he is not the eldest, but he was the only producer because he left school early and owned a shop selling and repairing mobile phones, and his income guaranteed us a decent living and was enough to buy the medication for his older brother who has hemolysis.”
She added, “I tried to convince him to put aside his weapon, and that his spending on her and his sick brother is considered sacred Jihad,” according to what she said since they both needed him, but he insisted it was “the last battle he would participate in and after that he would dedicate his time for his work but it was his last battle as he was martyred there.”
Oum Issa noted that she rented the place he worked to one of his friends, and she receives a monthly wage from the military faction he belonged to which has helped her to spend on herself and on her ill son as she said.
Tragedy and loss were not restricted to bereaved mothers but transgressed them to children, as there are small children who lost their mothers in kiln of battle, and they are the victims of orphan-hood, poverty, need and homelessness.
Nawal a lady in her fifties who did not have children points to Mohammad (5) and Asmaa (3) with tears in her eyes saying, “Samira the mother of these two children went to Deraa to receive her basket from the Syrian Red Crescent but one of the regime snipers targeted her, she died leaving these two children with no relatives, and we don’t know where they are from, all we know is that they are displaced person, we asked about them but no one recognized them, so I took it upon myself to take care of them and raise them,” she indicated that many of the people know their story, and provide what they can to help in raising them while one of their relatives or kin or someone to come and take care of them.
That is some of the stories of pain and tragedy from the lives of Syrian women which the war is still pounding them without mercy or pity, and reality points to their tragedy increases with the passing of days with the loss of any hope of the war stopping with the regime’s stubbornness, in the shadow of official international and popular silence which has given up on the simplest moral and humanitarian values and did not even bother to raise it hands in protest on a the extermination of a people in cold blood.
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